Outside my window… It’s dark. I usually write early in the morning, but I’m up late. I haven’t had caffeine in ages, but one little Dr. Pepper at lunch and I won’t be asleep any time soon. I really should know better by now.

Our leaves are almost all changed over- there are very few green leaves left! The trees in our front yard have huge leaves and Ender is really impressed that the leaves are bigger than his head. He wants to keep every single one of them.

I am thinking… about how to make our early mornings run better. I’m not naturally a morning person, but over the summer I had gotten into the habit of getting up early to help our mornings. I’ve been terrible about it in the last few weeks though- I need to plan ahead a little more in the evenings and actually get up with my alarm clock every day for a few weeks to help my body get used to it again.

I am thankful for… weekends. It was a good weekend.

Always Learning… Ezra has started to notice shapes. We talk a lot about circles, triangles and squares, but all he has so far is “shapes! Shapes!” which actually sounds like “sip! sip!” Hey- it’s a start.

Ender’s new thing this week is a book about rocks and minerals. He has a special box of rocks he has collected from camping trips, visits to new parks, rocks from the back yard and a variety of other places. A few are shiny or have a cool shape, but most of them seem like ordinary rocks. He has a reason why he chose every single one, and he keeps them ordered in his own way. He is in love with this new book and has spent quite a lot of time on it.

From the kitchen… 80 Gazillion pies worth of apple pie filling for future pies and crisps this winter. That’s pretty much all I’m doing in the kitchen this week- apples every single day!

I am wearing… My favorite jersey jammies.

I am creating… nothing new this week. I need to finish up a few things so that I can get started on Christmas stockings and Christmas gifts.

I am going… to catch up on the house this week.

I am reading… Little Town on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder.

I am hoping… for some resolutions to the schedule problems I’m having.

I am hearing… most excellent silence.

Around the house… I’m de-toying the house. It was becoming too much and it was time to put away some of the outgrown things. So our infant and under-2 toys are all packed up and in storage. I also sent Ezra’s 24 month clothes to storage along with his crib. He’s growing up too quickly!

One of my favorite things… Homemade Tomato Soup. I made a bunch yesterday. That is my soul food right there.

A few plans for the rest of the week … lots of apple pie making, quiet time in the evenings (I have hats to finish!), and Superman starts new classes this week.